Beginner Level

Part 4-Beginner Watercolor Exercises: Washes

Washes are such an essential skill as a beginner watercolor! If you’re just getting started, make sure to catch up on the other parts (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3). And in this post, we will learn all about washes: the flat, graded, and variegated.

I also have a FREE online course, Watercolor Basics for the Absolute Beginner, if you want to learn more!

Supplies:

This post includes affiliates links. This means that if you purchase the item using my link, I receive a small commission at no extra charge to you. I will only post products that I have personally used and would recommend. The small commission helps run this blog and its activities. Thank you!

Now that we’re familiar with both the wet-on-dry and wet-on-wet methods, we’re going to practice these washes on both dry and wet paper.

Flat Washes

A flat wash is a solid swatch of color. When painting a flat wash, you want to achieve a solid swatch of color. It has uniform color and tone and no visible brushstrokes. Unlike a gradient, which we’ll do in the next video. You can paint a flat wash on a dry or wet surface.

Let’s first do a flat wash on dry paper. I like to do this technique on smaller areas of my painting because, unless I have a large brush, it’s difficult to spread out an even color very quickly.

As you mix up your paint, make sure you have enough for the area that you’re going to paint. Furthermore, you want to make sure that your strokes are going in the same horizontal or vertical direction.

It also helps if you tilt your paper a little bit to make the paint bead at the bottom, making it easier to keep sweeping downward.

If you do see streaks in your wash, it could be that the paint dried too quickly before you could move it. Or if it gets lighter or too dark, then your mixture was inconsistent. So make sure that the water to paint ratio is consistent. That’s why the flat wash on dry is better for a smaller area, unless you are using a large enough brush to quickly work.

Next, let’s do it on wet paper. When the paper is already wet, you have a better chance at covering larger areas because the paint will take longer to dry, and you have more time to spread the color out.

Let’s first wet our paper. Make sure that your paper is just wet enough. Not too dry and no water blobs.

Then, pick up your paint, make sure that you’re grabbing paint that is slightly watered down so that your brush is evenly coated and that you don’t drop too much pigment in one area.

Then slowly spread the color out with your brush in one directional strokes.

Graded Washes

A graded wash is a faded swatch of color. Similar to the flat wash on dry paper, you want to use a graded wash on a smaller area of dry paper. I use this technique a lot on my paintings.

To do a graded wash on dry paper, start with a paint to water ratio of about 90 to 10. You want to start with as saturated of a color as possible. Then apply broad strokes back and forth. After a little bit, dip your brush in your water cup, and then blot quickly just to remove a little bit of excess water. Then come back to your wash and keep going. You’ll notice that it’s a lighter color.

This time let’s get an even lighter value. So wash out your brush a bit more, blot a bit more. And finish the swatch.

Let’s do it on wet paper.

Start by wetting your paper as we did the flat wash. Then dry your brush. Pick up paint that is pretty saturated. Then drop it at the place you want your darkest area to be. I’m going to choose the top. And then sweep your brush back and forth. As you move your way down, dip your brush in the water, removing some of the pigment and sweep again. Keep going until you’ve achieved the lightest value at the bottom.

I like to use this technique whenever I want to have softer edges or want colors to blend spontaneously on the paper like in this cardinal.

Variegated Washes

A variegated wash shows two colors on opposite ends and the mixture in the middle. With a variegated wash, you want to choose two colors that will create a nice mixed color. You can reference your mixing chart or do a few practice tests. For now, let’s stick with our ultramarine blue and yellow.

Start with either color, I’ll do the blue first. And start with a medium to dark value so we can fade it out and then start mixing in the yellow.

Do a few strokes, then wash out your brush a little bit, and continue to fade it out. Then pick up a little bit of the yellow and mix it in.

Then pick up more of the yellow to make a darker value, and finish the wash.

The variegated wash doesn’t always have to go from dark to light back to dark values. It’s just a matter of using 2 or more colors.

This is especially true when painting a sunset or sunrise. You may have three colors mixed in the wash. But you want a very smooth transition from one color to the next.

When you do a variegated wash on a large area, it’s best to do it on wet paper so that the paint spreads quickly and you have plenty of time to work with it instead of trying to reactivate dried edges.

Let’s try the variegated wash on wet paper.

Notice how the colors tend to blend a little easier on wet paper because it hasn’t been absorbed and dried into the paper yet.

Make notes of any observations as you do these techniques. And pay attention to which techniques you find easier to do or that you enjoy doing.

Great job! Washes also really help with water and brush control. So if you’re still struggling with that, pause here and do washes over and over again. You can make a wash of each of your paint colors. And then do them with a graded wash. Then choose two colors at a time and try variegated washes. Even though it seems like you’re not really painting anything worthwhile, it’s only going to help you because you’re building muscle memory, you’re learning about your paint colors and supplies, and you’re learning to let loose and have fun with no pressure to create anything specific.

Watch the video on Washes

Thanks so much for reading! I hope you learned something new. Remember to have fun with these techniques. Half the fun with watercolor is literally going with the flow and observing what happens. Happy accidents are most welcome here, and I hope it helps you fall in love with watercolor more and more.

There are more parts to this series, so stay tuned! I’d love to hear from you. Please leave a comment down below and share about your experience with these techniques.

If you try out these exercises, please tag me on social media @AudreyRaDesign and use the hashtag #PaintWithAudrey.

Buy me a coffee if you enjoyed this post!